Ministry of Agriculture &
Farmers Welfare
Farm Mechanisation for Doubling Farmers’ Income
Improved agricultural implements and machinery are essential inputs for modern agriculture. It enhances productivity besides reducing human drudgery and cost of cultivation. It also helps in improving utilization efficiency of other inputs.
Taking into consideration the above, to boost the farm mechanization in the country, a special dedicated schemeSub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization  has been introduced by Government, under which subsidy is provided for purchase of various types of Agricultural implements and machinery used for tillage, sowing, planting, harvesting, reaping, threshing, plant protection, inter cultivation and residue management.
A special Scheme to support the efforts of the Governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution due to stubble burning and to subsidize machinery for the farmers for in-situ management of crop residue, a new Central Sector Scheme on ‘‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi”  for the period from 2018-19 to 2019-20 has been also launched.
Some of the State Governments like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh are providing farm machineries to the farmers at a concessional rate through their Agricultural Departments.
However, to make available costly and bigger advance farm machinery at the door steps of the farmers on rent basis, Government is promoting Custom Hiring Centres  through a SMAM scheme; under which subsidy is provided @ of 40% of the project cost to individual farmer upto a project cost of Rs.60 lakh and 80% to the group of farmers upto a project cost of Rs. 10 lakh. A special consideration for the farmers of North Eastern Region  is available, 95% subsidy upto a project cost of Rs. 10 lakh is provided to group of NER farmers for establishment of Custom Hiring Centres. For establishment of Hi-tech and Hi-value agricultural machinery CHC, assistance @ of 40% of the project cost to individual farmer upto a project cost of Rs.250 lakh is provided. Under the CRM scheme to establish Custom Hiring of in-situ crop residue management machinery a financial assistance @ 80% of the project cost is provided to the farmers.
The Government has also developed and launched Multi lingual Mobile App “CHC- Farm Machinery” which helps the farmers for getting rented farm machinery and implements through Custom Hiring Service Centers  in their area. As on date, 44,607 CHCs with 1,39,319 Agricultural machinery for renting out are registered on this Mobile app. Total 1,14,461 farmers as users are registered on this Mobile App.
The Government has introduced the Kisan Credit Card  Scheme, which enables farmers to purchase agricultural inputs and draw cash to satisfy their agricultural and consumption needs. The KCC Scheme has since been simplified and converted into ATM enabled RuPaydebit card with, inter alia, facilities of one-time documentation, built-in cost escalation in the limit, any number of drawals within the limit, etc.
With a view to ensure availability of agriculture credit at a reduced interest rate of 7% p.a. to the farmers, an interest subvention scheme for short term crop loans upto Rs.3.00 lakh is implemented. The scheme provides interest subvention of 2% per annum to Banks on use of their own resources. Besides, additional 3% incentive is given to the farmers for prompt repayment of the loan, thereby reducing the effective rate of interest to 4%.
This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar in Lok Sabha today.